“People always ask me: “Is Steven [Gerrard] a coach, or is he a manager?”

“Well, there are different types of coaches. You can be a tactician, a developer, a technical coach or a leader and motivator. He’s very much in the leader-manager role, and I’m very much in a development, field coach role.”

Speaking to the Coaches Voice during his time as Gerrard’s assistant, Michael Beale’s self-examination is revealing. Since being appointed Rangers’ 18th manager, much of the rhetoric surrounding him has focused on experience. On one hand, the club have appointed a novice manager with 22 games to date. On the other, they’ve made a smart move to bring in a former employee with a track record of success.

The reality of the situation is likely somewhere in between; Beale has plenty of exposure at first-team level and is not a backroom staff member who’s struggled to find a voice. He’s in this position on the basis of his own work rather than a playing reputation, but even still plenty of risk is attached to this move. The role of Rangers first-team coach is not that of a Rangers manager.

Using Beale’s own managerial categories, the man he succeeds, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, was more of a tactician than anything else. Calvin Bassey’s development during his tenure was sensational, however, most players’ performance levels had regressed after his year in the job. Van Bronckhorst was not a domineering figurehead like Gerrard and his finest moments in charge, the Road to Seville predominantly, relied on intelligent tactical tinkering and clever game plans.

While Beale adds that Gerrard was a “very talented field coach” the former manager’s role was to oversee. He crafted a coaching team that filled in his own blanks, which showed a commendable self-awareness given the stature he could fall back on. By Gerrard’s own admission it would’ve taken him “15/20 years” to be as good an on-field coach as Beale who has spent his entire career teaching kids, teenagers and elite professionals how to improve individually and collectively.

This is why Rangers have opted to bring in the man QPR appointed just this summer. They will hope that beyond results, Beale’s ability to develop and improve can make his stint in Glasgow a success.

The new boss has adopted Gerrard’s methodology by building a team that compliments his strengths and accommodates his weaknesses. He remains the main on-field coach leading sessions but in Neil Banfield, 60, and Damian Matthew, 52, can rely on older, more experienced heads.

In becoming a manager Beale has stuck to his strengths which is, in his own words, not only developing players but "developing people".

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“When I went into coaching, I was determined never to let a kid feel how I felt at the end. I was always going to talk to them about the full package,” he continues, speaking to the Coaches Voice.

“Over the course of my time [coaching] at Liverpool, I realised something. I’d got there as a good coach – but, really, it had very little to do with coaching. It had more to do with how I managed people and whether they would take the message from me. How motivated I could get them.

“I think we put on decent training every day [at Rangers], but that’s nothing if the players aren’t buying into the message or don’t have a trust in the staff.”

It’s this type of rhetoric that shows why Beale has worked his way up from futsal in a Church Hall to the corridors of Ibrox. Possessing an understanding of tactical ideals or knowing how to improve players is one thing, getting them to buy into it completely is another.

After all, how many coaching prodigies have come and gone with good ideas but no relatability?

To recycle a Julian Nagelsmann quote: "Thirty per cent of coaching is tactics, 70 per cent social competence."

Beale has made all the right noises about the layering squad he inherits. Even if the need to rebuild next summer remains non-negotiable, he needs to work and improve the core of this group at present.

“I think if everyone is fit and available there’s enough in the building,” said Beale speaking last week. “You start talking about (Ianis) Hagi, (Tom) Lawrence, (Kemar) Roofe, (Fashion) Sakala, Morelos, Kent, (Scott) Wright, (Malik) Tillman, (Atonio) Colak.

“If I didn’t think we could do it with this group of players, I wouldn’t have come back. And I mean everybody that’s available in our squad. Write our squad down and put it next to our biggest rivals. Okay then, game on.

“I think at the moment one or two players' value is not the reality what it was six or eight months ago. That’s damaging to the players, the football club and the staff so we have to improve that.”

Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent have contracts expiring next summer. Glen Kamara is far from the valuation he would’ve once commanded and Ianis Hagi is yet to return from an ACL. The likes of Rabbi Matondo and Ridvan Yilmaz, young promising players bought in the summer, need to make their marks.  

To have a strong player-trading model the club need strong sellable assets and at this moment in time, there are few if any who would command the value that they did at their peak.

Beale has made his name and career based on the ability to coach, connect and develop. Rangers have appointed somebody who they believe can not only reinstall confidence but reinstate value, if able to repeat the process in Glasgow's goldfish bowl.

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